Resto racer reborn: Ex-GP rider James Whitham restores Yamaha YZR500 race bike over two years

Former British champion turned racing TV commentator, James Whitham has meticulously restored a Yamaha YZR500, first raced in the 1995 Grand Prix 500 season.

Lovingly pieced together across two years with the help of TT race winner Lee Johnston, it made its public debut at this past weekend’s Devitt Insurance MCN London Motorcycle Show, where it was fired into life in front of an enthusiastic crowd.

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“This bike’s original story starts in 1995,” Whitham explained. “It was Serge Rosset’s bike, the man behind the ROC chassis. It’s a later one, built and raced in 1995.

“Weirdly, I raced this exact bike or its identical twin [they could run spare bikes then] at Donington Park in a one-off race, and then it last raced in 1996 with a fella called Bernard Garcia, who’s a lovely fella.”

“It was then sold off – like a lot of them are – to a collector in England, then to Ireland, then it did a TT – or so we think,” he continued. “It lived a life running in various classes where it could fit in, then it was put into Marlborough colours, the frame was painted, and it was crashed, dinged, and just didn’t look very good.”

Whitham first came back into contact with the bike at Oliver’s Mount in Scarborough, after he spotted Lee Johnston riding it in a parade – having been purchased by one of his sponsors.

“It was rough, in all honesty… and he asked if I could have a look over it, and tidy it up,” Whit continued. “I love working on motorbikes, so it sounds fairly simple, right? Wrong.

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“I got it to my place, stripped it, made a list, and realised very quickly two things: It was in a lot worse order than I thought, secondly, you can’t go to Padgett’s, or Fowlers or somewhere like that to buy bits.”

As a result, everything from base gaskets to head O-rings needed to be made – with the scoops leading to the pressured airbox rebuilt by a specialist across 18 months after the originals were heavily damaged by previous crashes.

“I’ve still got bits coming, like a front lever because it needs to be exact,” he continued. “The paintwork has been done properly by Spray Bay, and to be honest, it’s far better than what it would’ve ever been when it raced.”

The entire build process was documented on Johnston’s YouTube channel, with Whitham adding: “When this fired up and run perfectly it was incredible – usually when you see a first fire up on video it’s the second or third so you don’t look silly, but that was our actual first go and it was spot on – the sense of relief was just incredible.

“You never know how a bike is going to come out, but I’m happy with this one.”

Part of the rebuild also involved hefty changes to the forks – with a full strip and rebuild, plus a grinding and respray of the outer tubes for a fresh factory look. To further make sure the bike can be ridden and paraded in safety, the lightweight wheels were sent back to Dymag to be properly tested for cracks before being painted up.

“Everything checks out, the cranks, bearings, pistons, rings, it’s all really good, so you can run it. You wouldn’t want to do big mileage on it, but it will be a great parade bike,” Whitham added.